Thomas Jefferson, 1786, by Mather Brown (National Portrait Gallery)
During his long career, Thomas Jefferson’s image shifted from cosmopolitan intellectual to man of the people. As president, he kept friends and foes guessing, appearing unpredictably in old, worn, and out-of-date clothing or just as easily playing the polished gentleman in a black suit.
Was Jefferson fashioning his public persona to promote his political agenda? Was he branding his own image with his use of clothing, portraiture, and even architecture? Gaye Wilson, Shannon senior historian at Monticello’s Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies, provides valuable new insights into this perplexing Founding Father through an investigation of Jefferson’s self-fashioning that uses portraits (including an important one in the Portrait Gallery’s collection), period newspapers, correspondence, and private records.
Wilson’s ongoing research focuses on the public image created by the political Jefferson, and what it tells us about this controversial early-American leader.
Wilson’s book, Jefferson on Display: Attire, Etiquette, and the Art of Presentation (The University of Virginia Press) is available for sale and signing at the conclusion of the program.
